Wildlife news

Well, that was summer. Sun, rain and then more rain while we put our woollies on suggests we're well into the colder part of the year.

So where are we in the orchard? Some trees are growing well, others need encouragement. There's much less nettle coverage. Still plenty of the plants around, but we've only needed to strim the field a couple of times and the sheep are keeping most of the growth under control. And when the ground's wet, we've been trying to pull them up and see satisfying yellow gnarled clumps of root system come out of the ground. So this feels like progress.

Most interesting this year is the other animal life. We've seen a fox a couple of times. There have been plenty of butterflies - not quite the glut of last year, when there were carpets of beautiful peacock butterflies, but possibly a bit more variety. We've seen Large Whites, Meadow Browns, Small Heaths, Speckled Woods (unusual since we're open space and not woodland) an other fritillaries. The odd frog and slow worm has also been seen.

But most obvious is the population of rabbits, some of whom have worked out that near the sheep is a safe place to be. We'll often see one or two rabbits munching grass with the Soays. There's a little herbivorous community developing there. Bet they've been drinking the sheeps' water as well.